LOS ANGELES — Black Panther and Captain Marvel will join the Marvel Cinematic Universe with stand-alone movies — finally putting a woman and a black hero front and center on the big screen, alongside newcomers the Inhumans — all part of the studio's plan to bring Phase 3 to a head with a two-part Avengers: Infinity War set for May 2018 and 2019, respectively, the studio announced Tuesday.

Marvel also revealed that Chadwick Boseman (below) would play Black Panther and be introduced in Captain America: Civil War, the title for the third film starring Chris Evans, set for next May. Boseman, the star of Get on Up and 42, joined Evans and Robert Downey Jr. onstage at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood, where studio president Kevin Feige unleashed a massive news-dump that cleared up all kinds of questions about what Marvel's next move would be.

President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige and Robert Downey Jr., Chadwick Boseman and Chris Evans during Marvel Studios fan event at The El Capitan Theatre.

Image: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney

The new plan, per Feige (above, left, with Robert Downey Jr., Chadwick Boseman and Chris Evans ):

Captain America: Civil War, for May 6, 2016

Doctor Strange, for November 4, 2016

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 moved from July 2, 2017, to May 5, 2017

Thor: Ragnarok, for July 28, 2017

Black Panther, for November 3, 2017

Avengers: Infinity War - Part 1, for May 4, 2018

Captain Marvel, for July 6, 2018

Inhumans, for November 2, 2018

Avengers: Infinity War - Part 2, for May 3, 2019

The movies Marvel is planning on releasing into 2019.

Image: Marvel

Marvel called the event at Disney's home theater in Hollywood just last week in cryptic invitations emailed to press and select fans. Feige kicked it off by showing the same Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer that was leaked online last Wednesday, forcing Disney to hastily post a hi-res version, and then went right into announcing all of his studio's "Phase Three" plans.

Artwork for Marvel's Black Panther movie

Image: Marvel

Boseman as Black Panther was perhaps the biggest surprise of the day, as many had expected the big casting news to be confirmation of reports that Benedict Cumberbatch would play Doctor Strange — which is set for Nov. 4, 2016. But instead it was Boseman (below) who took the stage, and will play the King of Wakanda, a fictitious African nation that's the source of all the Earth's "vibranium," the element from which Captain America's shield is made.

Downey and Evans were there to greet him, sowing the seeds for Captain America: Civil War, which will pit the former Avengers teammates against one another and introduce T'Challah (Panther's name), who'll likely be forced to take sides.

No cast has been yet announced for Captain Marvel, who will represent Marvel's first female superhero to get her own film, but the search — and the rumors — were sure to get underway soon. Feige described Captain Marvel as perhaps the MCU's "most powerful" character, whose alter-ego Carol Danvers is firmly grounded on Earth, but does most of her superhero stuff in space, further expanding the outer reaches that Marvel has already established with Guardians of the Galaxy.

As for Inhumans, the royal family-drama is an all-new team-up from the studio that does them best, one that Feige said will introduce "dozens of characters." Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the mid-1960s, the Inhumans are a race that hyper-evolved when Kree (the alien race of which Guardians villain Ronan the Accuser is a rogue member) experimented on them while visiting Earth during the Stone Age.

Marvel's "Inhumans."

Image: Marvel.com

Though there are potentially hundreds or even thousands of Inhumans among us, the comic books center on a royal Inhuman family led by Black Bolt, whose voice is so powerful that it can level a city (essentially rendering him mute). The royalty saga, which takes place on Attilan, an city floating above the Earth, could shape up to be something like Marvel's version of Game of Thrones, the film will come just in time to throw a wrinkle into the final chapter of Phase 3.

That would be Infinity Wars, the final boss-battle against Thanos, which has been brewing since the first Iron Man film, Feige said, confirming what we've been suspecting for years. In a sizzle reel announcing Infinity Wars, Thanos was shown wearing the Infinity gauntlet, a cosmic glove that blends the power of each of the Infinity gemstones, which Marvel has been rolling out since the first Captain America film.

The tesseract from The First Avenger, the stone in Loki's scepter from Avengers, the orb from Guardians of the Galaxy, the Aether substance from Thor: The Dark World and possibly even Thor's hammer Mjolnir have all been revealed to be Infinity gemstones which, if brought all together, give the wearer of the gauntlet complete, god-like power.

With 10 Marvel movies in the can (to the tune of more than $7 billion in worldwide box office) and 11 more now on the calendar, Feige is truly wielding unlimited power at Disney/Marvel — including motivating a small army of Los Angeles-based geek press to come to Hollywood on a Tuesday morning.

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